| Authorised form of name | Ramage; Robert (1935 - 2019) |
| Dates | 1935 - 2019 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom |
| Date of birth | 04/10/1935 |
| Date of death | 16/10/2019 |
| Occupation | Chemist |
| Research field | Organic chemistry |
| Activity | Education:
Glasgow University, BSc (1954-1958), PhD (1958-1961), DSc (1982);
Career:
Fellow of Harvard College and Fullbright Fellow, Harvard University (1961-1963); Research Fellow, Woodward Research Institute, Basle (1963-1964); Lecturer in Organic Chemsitry (1971-1977), Senior Lecturer in Organic Chemistry (1871-1977), University of Liverpool; Professor of Organic Chemistry (1977-1984, Head of Department of Chemistry (1979-1984), UMIST; Head of Department of Chemistry (1987-1990), Forbes Professor of Organic Chemistry (1984-), University of Edinburgh; additional work as an external examiner and as an industry consultant
Memberships:
American Chemical Society (1972); FRSC (1977); FRSE (1986); Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce (1991); New York Academy of Sciences (1991)
Medals and Awards:
Portuguese Chemical Society Medal (1985); Tilden Lectureship of Royal Society of Chemistry (1986-1987); Royal Society of Chemistry Award for Synthetic Organic CHemistry (1987); Erskine Fellowship, University of Canterbury, New Zealand (1991) |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 12/03/1992 |
| Age at election | 56 |
| OtherInfo | Robert Ramage made versatile and innovative contributions to a number of important areas of organic chemistry. His seminal ideas on sesquiterpene biosynthesis were followed by stereochemically controlled chiral syntheses of a range of complex terpenes. He participated with Robert B. Woodward in the classical synthesis of cephalosporin C, a feat which significantly influenced later synthetic approaches to the beta-lactam antibiotics. Together with Alan R. Battersby he solved the enigma of colchicine biosynthesis, established the structure of a new series of alkaloids and determined the biosynthetic pathway to these homoaporphines. In the ergot alkaloid field, he designed a new synthesis of lysergic acid. Initially with George W. Kenner, and then independently, he made extensive contributions to polypeptide chemistry particularly in the gastrin field with structural elucidations followed by total synthesis of minigastrin and porcine big gastrin. He innovated many useful methodologies for peptide synthesis and applied them successfully to high molecular weight polypeptides.
Professor Robert Ramage FRS died on 16 October 2019. |
| Source | Sources:
https://royalsociety.org/people/robert-ramage-12140/ |
| Code | NA4097 |
Archives associated with this Fellow
| RefNo | Title | Date |
| IM/003722 | Ramage, Robert | 1992 |
| EC/1992/30 | Ramage, Robert: certificate of election to the Royal Society | 1985 |